Were Rick and Morty real people, they would both shit on me for wanting to watch a TV show on Blu-ray or DVD, especially one that’s on a streaming service I’m subscribed to. And don’t even get me started on what Summer would say. But I don’t care, because after watching Rick And Morty: Season 5 on Blu-ray, I can suffer their verbal slings and arrows, confident in the knowledge that this is the best way to watch this hilarious sci-fi animated show.
Available on Blu-ray…
in a special limited edition Steelbook Blu-ray, and on DVD, Rick And Morty: Season 5 — like Rick And Morty: Season 4 and Rick And Morty: Season 3 — features ten episodes that range in quality from really, really good to super genius. Not only does Rick have a run-in with a horny version of The Submariner (“Mort Dinner Rick Andre”), but Morty finds love with a Captain Planet wannabe (“A Rickconvenient Mort”), and Rick, well, let’s just say it’s Voltron meets Goodfellas (“Gotron Jerysis Rickvangelion”).
But things in Rick And Morty: Season 5 really get good — by which I mean really funny, really smart, really intricate, and sometimes really meta — when aliens kill the decoys Rick made to protect himself and his family (“Mortiplicity”), when Morty nearly destroys the world by fucking a piece of veterinary equipment (“Rickdependence Day”), when Rick pulls a Cell move on what’s left of Birdperson (“Rickternal Friendshine Of The Spotless Mort”), and when Evil Morty’s grand plan finally comes to fruition (“Ruckmurai Jack”).
As for how these episodes are on the Rick And Morty: Season 5 Blu-rays and DVD, well, obviously, they look better than when you stream them on HBO Max (though, obviously, the Blu-rays look better than the DVD if you have an HD TV), and don’t have the mid-episode, on-screen ads like they do on Adult Swim.
The Rick And Morty: Season 5 Blu-rays and DVD are also, unlike the TV versions, uncensored verbally…but not visually; the genitals are still blurred out for some reason Which isn’t just oddly inconsistent, it’s also sort of problematic given that the episode “A Rickconvenient Mort” has a plot point involving elbow titties that are supposed to be so fantastic that they’re why Rick can’t quit his alien girlfriend.
Along with this season’s ten episodes,
Rick And Morty: Season 5 also has some entertaining extras, starting with “Fighting Gravity: The Making Of Season 5,” an informative nine-minute making-of featurette that’s especially interesting in light of these episodes being made during the pandemic. They then go deeper into the individual episodes in the ten “Inside The Episode” featurettes, as well as the two “Directing…” ones for the episodes “Mortyplicity” and “Rickmurai Jack,” with all being short but still insightful.
Next, the Rick And Morty: Season 5 DVD and Blu-rays continues the making-of process, first with “Animation And Compositing,” a quick look at different aspects of the animation process, and then with “Backgrounds” and “Coloring Rick And Morty,” in which the artists talk about, what else, the backgrounds and colors.
Though they also turn the “making-of” thing on its head with “B-Story Generator Vol. 1” and “Vol.2,” in which writer Rob Schrab and writer/creator Dan Harmon jokingly talk about different ideas they’ve had for secondary stories.
And then there’s “Season 5 Hype,” in which Harmon and the writers talk about the season, though it’s only interesting when they lie.
As good as the extras…
on the Rick And Morty: Season 5 DVD and Blu-rays may be, though, they’re far from complete. There are some rather glaring (and annoying) omissions, not the least of which are deleted scenes, of which there are none included, even though some clearly exist. Part of the “Backgrounds” featurette has an artist talking about one, and showing the finished footage of it, while “B-Story Generator Vol. 1” has animatics for one of them, which suggest it too got cut somewhere in the animation process.
There’s also no episode commentaries, which is always a bummer. Nor anything about this season’s guest stars, who include Alison Brie, Jennifer Coolidge, and Steve Buscemi (“A Rickconvenient Mort”), Christina Ricci (“Rickdependence Spray”), Timothy Olyphant (“Rick & Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular”), and Keith David, who returns as the President in both “Rick & Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular” and “Rickdependence Spray.”
But the biggest bummer about the Rick And Morty: Season 5 Blu-rays and DVD, after the M.I.A. deleted scenes, is that they don’t have any of the anime shorts or episodes that came just before and just after this season aired. It also doesn’t have the trailers for this season, or the hilarious commercials they did for Wendy’s and Pringles.
Even with these missing elements, though,
the Blu-rays of Rick And Morty: Season 5 are still the best way to watch the show, as is the DVD if you don’t have an HD TV. The picture surpasses streaming, and the extras that are included are entertaining as well. And that’s something Rick, Morty, and maybe even Summer can’t shit on.
SCORE: 8.5/10
